iTunes Now the Third Biggest Music Store Behind Only Wal-Mart and Best Buy

It’s all good news for Apple this month. In addition to launching an obscure, little-discussed cellphone next week, the most recent NPD MusicWatch data says that the iTunes Store is now the third largest music store in the country. And yes, that list includes brick-and-mortart stores. For the first quarter of 2007, the iTunes Store had 9.8 percent of all music sales, behind Wal-Mart’s 15.8 percent and Best Buy’s 13.8 percent. Amazon.com trails iTunes, at 6.7 percent.

So, basically, people are getting more and more comfortable with buying music online. Now that some of it is DRM-free, I can only see this trend increasing.